The 8 Phases of the Moon

Who doesn’t love the mystery and romance of the moon? Earth’s closest celestial object has been around for around 4.5 billion years. Most likely formed by a chunk of the earth being ripped from itself, the moon has been a beautiful and constant companion to us.

Much of the beauty that comes from the moon is it’s transformative nature. As this infographic shows, the moon is ‘shaped’ in a way by us. As the earth moves in and out of the light path from the sun to the moon, there is a penumbra/umbra (i.e.) shadow that is cast. When the Moon, Earth, and Sun are in approximate alignment, the moon is either at it’s most or least visible form to our perspective. As it orbits around us we see a gradual change from these two extremes. When the moon grows in visibility we say that it is waxing. When the moon is becoming new again (or less visible) we say that it is waning.

Here are some other fun facts I found while researching for this infographic:

In a survey conducted in 1988, 13% of those surveyed believed that the moon is made of cheese.

In China, the dark shadows that are on the moon are called “the toad in the moon”.

The moon rotates at 10 miles per hour compared to the earth’s rotation of 1000 miles per hour.

The moon’s diameter is about 1/4 the diameter of the Earth. About 49 moons would fit inside the Earth.